The Media-TIC building will be the nucleus connecting the space between the Media and TIC
clusters of the 22@Barcelona district, a meeting point for companies and professionals. Developed by the
Consortium of the Zona Franca and the 22@Barcelona company, the Media-TIC building stands at the junction of Carrer Roc Boronat and Carrer Sancho de Ávila.
Media-TIC covers an area of 14,000 m
2 with spaces for companies, research and training, and gives priority to spatial intercommunication, the interrelation with the 22@Barcelona district, of which it is a part, and the development of synergies as befitting a cluster space.
The
Open University of Catalonia will occupy the 5,000 m
2 of the building's top three floors and will house the university's
Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) and the
eLearn Center, while
Barcelona Digital Centre Tecnològic will also set up its headquarters in the building, occupying almost an entire floor.
Special attention will also be paid to the zones on the ground floor, where communal services and communication spaces will be located to enhance the connection between the various initiatives of the Parc Barcelona Media and the opening of the building in the district.
A highly personal creation of the
Cloud-9 architect's office, led by
Enric Ruiz-Geli, the building seeks to be iconic in the digital world
and a vehicle for the dissemination of new technologies, while being
designed as a socially open civic space.
The building is in the shape of a cube and formed by large iron beams
covered in a plastic coating of inflatable bubbles, which offer
glimpses of the fluorescent structure of the building. The attractive
covering also has a functional utility as a way of regulating light and
temperature, primarily preventing 114 tons of CO2 a year from escaping
from the building, and offering a 20% saving on climate control.
Every facade of the Media-TIC is different: from the outside, they
reveal parts of their interior spaces and give a diverse plasticity,
while from the inside they offer spectacular views.
The translucent and innovative covering,
ETFE (Ethylene Tetrafluor
Ethylene), recently approved as a construction material, is in itself
an innovation in Spanish building: it acts as an external covering and
a mobile sunscreen that helps light to penetrate and affords heat
savings.
The ETFE skin is activated using pneumatic mechanisms thanks to
“luxometer” sensors that automatically and independently activate the
chamber inflation and deflation devices according to how much solar
energy there is. These luxometers are energy independent.
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